PI Manager uses ocpn-plugins.xml to provide the required metadata and URLs for installation of plugins.

Ocpn-plugins.xml and associated metadata files are located in https://github.com/OpenCPN/plugins/

Batch files and scripts are available to help create this file ocpn-plugins.xml is created from the individual plugin metadata files located in the data directory.

Please review the Readme file.

In summary

1. ocpn-plugins.xml is maintained within the project https://github.com/OpenCPN/plugins
2. Users can download updated versions directly from github (=this project https://github.com/OpenCPN/plugins).
3. Devs can clone this repo and create their own variant which is accessible from the GU using a custom URL.
4. Devs can issue PR:s against this repo to have their updates incorporated in the main ocpn-plugins-xml.
5. Dave has access to build the ocpn-plugins.xml in the master branch of the repository.

The scripts require Python

Recording for documentation. using Alpha channel.

1. From your local Github repository git clone https://github.com/[Your Git Name]/OpenCPN/plugins.git
2. Then git checkout Alpha to go to the Alpha branch.
3. From the Alpha branch create your own corresponding branch, git checkout -b [your-name-or-plugin]-alpha which will contain your testing metadata.xml's.
4. Now go back to the Alpha branch git checkout Alpha to create your own META-URL xml file.
5. Under the metadata directory create and add to the other xml files, a new file with a meta-data redirect to your [your-name-or-plugin]-alpha branch. Example follows:
6. In this case the filename is meta-url-alpha-seandepagnier-rgleason.xml
7. The text in the xml file is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opencpn-plugin version="1">
  <name> Sean Depagnier Alpha Plugins meta-url </name>
  <version> 1.0 </version>
  <summary> meta-url to Sean's Alpha Plugins by rgleason </summary>
    <meta-url> https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rgleason/plugins/rg-alpha/ocpn-plugins.xml </meta-url>
</opencpn-plugin>

1. Next run the python tool to build a new ocpn-plugins.xml by executing at the command prompt from the /plugins/ directory
   python tools/ocpn-metadata generate –force –userdir metadata –destfile ocpn-plugins.xml
2. Next make sure the private metadata directory is current and operational with a good ocpn-plugins.xml containing the xml data needed to direct to the cloud sources.
3. For example I've created a new branch
   github.com/rgleason/OpenCPN/plugins/rg-alpha
4. Then pushed the new files in that branch up to my remote.
5. Now I can copy Cloudsmith metadata xml files for plugins into
   github.com/rgleason/OpenCPN/plugins/rg-alpha/metadata
6. Then easily generate the necessary ocpn-plugins.xml with
   python tools/ocpn-metadata generate –force –userdir metadata –destfile ocpn-plugins.xml
   Note order of xml data may change, causing it to appear that the PR has more changes than it actually does.

#19 Pull Request from opencpn/plugins/rgleason:rg-alpha to opencpn/plugins:Alpha

Also here is another example with squiddio